A bug’s light

Debra Crist remembers catching fireflies while camping in her backyard in west Greeley.

“It’s been a long time,” Crist, 41, of Evans said. “We used to see them a lot when I was younger.”

Crist might be able to take her daughter Hannah Park, 3, firefly hunting again if area entomologists’ predictions are correct. Boris Kondratieff, an entomology professor at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, predicts that the flickering critters will sprinkle the night skies in Colorado because of the wet June. Kondratieff said fireflies need water to develop their young.

A species of firefly beetles is common in Colorado, but it does not glow. The wet spring, especially June, one of the wettest on record in Greeley, will help attract the flashing species.

The flashers better watch out because people in the area will be hunting for the neon yellow and greenish flickers. Crist said she would go out and catch them again, except this time she would have Hannah by her side. Residents should start seeing them at any time.

Crist said they would not be in large groups, and it wasn’t an every-night occurrence, but memories stuck with her.

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“We used to just catch them in a jar and watch them light up,” Crist said.

Chris Zimmerman, 22, of Greeley said he used to catch fireflies as a child when he lived in Florida.

“We caught them and put them in a bottle,” Zimmerman said, “and shook them to make them light up,”

He said the technique worked, and if he’s given the chance, he will play with them again.